Curate - the Rev'd
M. Barton.
GENERAL HISTORY
Welcome to St. John's
If you stand in front of the tower arch facing East, you are at the back of
what was a 12th century building. It had no aisles and extended a short way
beyond a rounded arch to a small chancel. In the 14th century the aisles were
added, the chancel enlarged, and a short tower built. Walls and pillars were
brightly painted and the windows filled with stained glass.
There was a massive re-building in the 15th century when the nave roof was raised,
together with the aisles. The clerestory (high nave windows) gave more light
and new paintings appeared on the new, higher walls. The tower was made higher,
too.
SOUTH PORCH, DOOR, SOUTH AISLE
Now please walk round, starting with the 15th century porch which replaced a
lower 14th century one. Above it is a priest's room. Opposite the steps to it
you can see some masonry which was once outside, helping to support the roof
of the Norman building before the aisle was buiit. By the door is a 16th century
chest with three locks (with keys held by vicar and church-wardens as we might
put three signatures on a cheque!) The corbels on the wall by the door are stonework
moved from the North aisle chapel.
Between the 15th century windows there were wall paintings, including an elaborate
Tree of Jesse in the south east corner. Over it is part of the Lord's Prayer,
one of many framed Scripture texts which replaced the mediaeval pictures after
the Reformation. The 14th century piscina has been moved from elsewhere.
BACK OF THE NAVE
Return to the back of the nave. Over your head was once a West gallery to hold
Church musicians and extra people. (Demolished in 1865). To the left of the
tower arch is a 17th century chest. Inside the base of the tower is a 14th century
doorway to the tower stairs. Scratched on one of the bare stones on the right
hand side of the tower is a pattern for window leadwork... or where a mason
has tried out his compasses! Pass under the arch into the North aisie, noting
the long downward-pointing arrow on the South side of the pillar to your right.
It is the mark ofthe 15th century master mason, about four feet up from the
floor.
NORTH AISLE
At the back is the 12th or 13th century font moved from the centre back of the
Church, and restored in the 19th century. In the nearby window, the golden figure
with a palm (St. John?) is 15th century and was originally in the East window
of the South aisle. The two 14th century windows do not match, so may have been
elsewhere before the aisles were raised, possibly at the East end of the two
aisle chapels.
PAINTINGS IN THE NORTH AISLE
Step back to see them. From the 14th century are the pictures of St. Anne teaching
St. Mary to read, and the usual St. Christopher; people believed that to look
at his picture and to invoke his aid was to ensure their safety for the rest
of the day. The Christchild can be identified by his peacock patterned robe.
After the renovations there was a whole set of new paintings, hence this muddle!
Near the font is a headless St. Michael weighing souls in a balance. Some of
the souls (see their faces) are protected under St. Mary's cloak. Then, above
St. Anne you can see the halo of the 15th century St. Christopher with his flowering
staff, but not the Child.
Beyond the window the 14th century St. Christopher was over-painted with a very
unusual subject; a combination of the Seven Deadly Sins with a Warning to Swearers.
"...it's a grisly thing to hear them swear. Our dear Lord's body they will rend
and tear" said Chaucer of the mediaeval habit of swearing by parts of Christ's
body or his wounds (as in "Zounds!"). It was believed this added to our Lord's
physical torment. St. Mary holds her dead Son across her knees to remind men
of the true cost of their salvation. Surrounding her are groups of fashionable
young men, each accompanied by a demon representing a Deadly Sin.
NORTH AISLE AND NORTH CHAPEL
A coloured niche by the last window once held an image of St. Mary because Margery
de Criol (as in Croxton Kerrial) endowed a Lady Chapel in this aisle before
1319. Hence the crowned head of Mary, very like the nearby painting of her,
in the westernmost window....together with the shield of the Pecche family.
As lords of the manor they began the Corby Sheep Fair which is still held annually,
nearly eight hundred years later.
The step up marks the original East end of the chapel but the aisle was extended
in the 15th century to form another chapel. Beyond, is a repositioned 13th or
14th century tomb recess. The chapel may have had a splendid East window but
it has since been reduced and then blocked up. Below it is a corbel for a saint's
image.
Come back down the step. On your left, over the cupboard, are the remains of
a squint, through which worshippers could see the priest hold up the consecrated
wafer at the Mass.
THE NAVE
Now step through into the middle of the nave. On your left is the pulpit where
God's living Word is preached week by week. Note the figure of St. John on the
front with his Gospel and a chalice. Above it is the tiny door leading to the
Rood Loft. In the 15th century the new chancel arch was filled with a carved
wooden screen. Along the top ran a loft like a parapet on which was mounted
the Holy Rood...a huge crucifix with St. Mary on one side and St. John the Apostle
on the other. Thin (!) choirboys would use the door to place lights on the candle
beam on the loft. There may have been a small organ here. In 1588 the churchwardens
had the Rood figures burned and laterthe screen was sold.
Two stones jut out from the chancel arch; they belonged to the narrower Norman
arch. Behind the North side of the arch, by the cane chair and about two feet
from the floor, is a pattern for a Mass dial. There are three real ones outside
on the South walls, looking like indistinct pie charts with holes where the
metal pointers were fixed.
CHANCEL
Continue into the chancel, much of which was re-built in 1860. You can see the
15th century arcade into the extended North chapel, beyond the organ. The East
window has 15th century tracery in an older opening, and Victorian glass. The
three main pictures show, (left to right) Christ the Good Shepherd finding the
lost sheep, "Suffer little children to come unto me", and Christ carrying his
cross to Calvary. The other window by the altar is a delightfully feminist one.
It shows Faith, Charity and Hope at the top, then two Resurrection scenes where
the women hear the great Easter message and are told to pass it on, and in the
middle is Dorcas (Book of Acts, chapter 9) performing an act of charity.
The altar was given in 1976 in memory of John Hedley Lewis, landowner, sportsman
and the first Chairman of the Lincolnshire County Council. It stands behind
17th century altar rails; in 1634 Archbishop Laud decreed that altars should
be moved against the East wall and railed off "that doggs may not gett in".
PAINTINGS IN THE NAVE
Come back to the centre of the nave and look at the wall over the arch. A 13th
or 14th century window was blocked up and a 15th century Doom painted over the
whole of the wall when the roof was raised. One can just see traces of the lower
roof level. Like the North aisle, the Doom has succumbed to the ravages of damp,
time and flaking plaster. High up, sat Christ enthroned on a rainbow, flanked
by Apostles. An angel sounds the Last Trump on either side under the two corbels.
(All along the nave are good 15th century corbels of strange heads and the one
in the south west corner is wood.)
On Christ's right, the blessed souls pass into the heavenly Jerusalem on the
North wall, while underneath them, other shrouded souls push up their coffin
lids! On Christ's left are the damned undergoing punishment by cooking pot etc.,
and on the South wall a huge red monster's head represents the jaws of hell.
Above is a poacher on a gallows.
Below the vanished figure of Christ was a red panel with spaces left for the
figures on the Rood even though they would seem to be too high to be in line
with the loft.
The Christmas story in the clerestory is more distinct. A shepherd and a king
have vanished from the West end but the rest is wonderful. St. Mary and her
Child hold court, accompanied by the Unbelieving Midwife and the ox and ass.
These figure in the apocryphal versions of the Gospels. The shepherds point
to a star which may have been on the wall and Herod orders the Massacre of the
Innocents.
Clive Rouse uncovered and did some preservative work on the paintings in the
forties, and a copy of his book is at the back of the Church. In 1992 they were
further preserved with funds from English Heritage.
The pigments are believed to be iron oxide (red), yellow ochre, carbon black,
and possibly malachite (blue/green).
We hope you have enjoyed exploring this place which is very much a house of
prayer for Corby where denominational differences are often blurred. It is a
monument not only to mediaeval craftsmanship, but also to the faith of many
generations in our crucified and risen Lord.
As you leave, walk up the churchyard path to the left of the porch and near
the East end of the South aisle you will find the gravestone of Joseph Wright,
auctioneer, which was erected by public subscription. This is the epitaph:
Beneath this stone facetious wight
Lies all that's left of poor Joe Wright
Few hearts with greater kindness warmed
Few hearts with knowledge more informed
With brilliant wit and humour broad
He pleased the peasant, squire or lord.
At length old Death with visage queer
Assumed Joe's trade of auctioneer
Made him the lot to practise on
With Going, Going and anon
He knocked him down so poor Joe's gone.
As you return, look up to the 15th century tower. The original four bells date
from 1580 to 1628. They are inscribed as follows:
"Merorem mestis letis sic leta sonabo" (I will sound sadly to the sad, joyfully
to the joyous)
"Non clamor sed amor cantat in aure Dei" (Not noise but love sings in the ear
of God)
"I sweetly tolling men do call to taste on meats that feed the soule"
"in noe ihu xpi ome genu flectat celestiu terstria t infroru" (In the name of
Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, in earth and under the earth)
When the bells were re-hung in 1975 the old Grammar School bell of 1691 was
added as a service bell. In 1988 a bell from Bassingthorpe Church was added
dated 1694.
In 1991 a new weather vane was erected, an exact replica of the original which
had rusted away.
As you leave our Church, may the blessing of God, the peace of Christ and the
strengthening power of the Holy Spirit go with you.
AN EPITAPH
In 1673 a Grammar School was built at the top end of Moreley's Lane, endowed
by Charles Read. The following epitaph can be seen...in Latin...towards the
East end of the North aisle of the Church. Here is a translation.
Sacred to the Memory
of Francis Wilcox BA minister of this Church and for nearly fifty years Master
of the Grammar School, also Vicar of Bitchfield; a man distinguished by his
learning and many virtues, who for seventy four years had fought under the banner
of Christ, until in due season he attained the Heaven he had long yearned for,
and yielded to the command of Fate in the year of salvation 1776.
In the same tomb repose the ashes of Anna his wife, a woman who, on account
of her remarkable piety, exceptional honesty and her vigilant care as a good
parent, left a great sense of loss among her children.
Deceased January 1764 aged 59. Their beloved children erected this memorial
of their love and perpetual witness to their grief.
